Indigenous traditional knowledge and intellectual property rights

Only recently, however, has the need to protect, preserve and provide for the fair use of indigenous intellectual property – traditional knowledge – entered the domestic and international debate on intellectual property rights. [...] The plant plays an important medicinal and religious role in the history and tradition of the peoples of the Amazon. [...] In contrast, positive protection refers to the use of intellectual property rights or the development of new types of rights providing for the affirmative protection of traditional knowledge. [...] The importance of protecting and preserving indigenous traditional knowledge has been recognized in several international instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on Biological Diversity,(14) the draft United Nations Declaration (14) Article 8(j) of the Convention on Biological Diversity provides that:. [...] Subject to its national legislation, respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and promote their wider application with the approval and involvement of the L I B R A R Y. O F. P A R L I A M E N T B I B L I O T H È Q U E. D U. P A R